The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Council has denied the attack on President Muhammadu Buhari and Kano State Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje by enraged Kano youths.
On Monday, some angry youths in Kano State hurled stones at President Buhari’s convoy during his official visit to the state, according to video footage circulated on the internet.
According to reports, President Buhari arrived at the Aminu Kano International Airport in the morning and was helicoptered to the palace of Kano’s Emir, Aminu Bayero.
But in spite of the heavy security presence mounted on the routes leading to Ahmadu Bello way where Buhari was to launch Galaxy Backbone Limited’s project, some angry youths of the state attacked and hurled stones and sticks on the President’s convoy and the helicopter as it hovered above them.
However, reacting to the incident, the APC PCC in a statement captioned “Re-Attack On President Buhari In Kano” and signed by the Council’s Director of Media and Publicity, Bayo Onanuga, debunked the attack, describing it as an imaginary and fake news peddled by opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to deceive Nigerians.
Despite that the video of the incident has gone viral on the internet, Onanuga said that the PDP has been masterminding fake news against the APC presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu and has been trying to cause disharmony in the APC family, therefore, the opposition party might have planned to embarrass President Buhari in Kano to blame it on Governor Ganduje and Tinubu.
The statement read, “We were not surprised to read of the imaginary attack on the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria being peddled by the PDP since the party has nothing tangible to tell Nigerians from its crumbling Presidential Campaign.
“This invented attack on President Muhammadu Buhari must have happened only in the fertile imagination of PDP National Publicity Secretary, one Debo Ologunagba. Nigerians should disregard this fake news from a party that has lost touch with reality and suffering the agony of violating its own rules on power rotation.
“Just as it has been masterminding fake news against the APC presidential candidate and trying vainly to cause disharmony in the APC family, we believe the party may have planned to embarrass President Buhari in Kano and then put the blame on host Governor Ganduje and Tinubu.
“This is because PDP has of recent morphed from being a Buhari virulent critic to strangely becoming a Buhari spokesperson. The last time it issued a self-serving misinterpretation of Asíwájú’s statement in Abeokuta as an attack on President Buhari.
“It should be quite obvious to Nigerians that the knowledge of impending defeat of PDP at the coming presidential poll has pushed the party and its candidate into frenzied hallucinatory mode of mindless, ridiculous, ludicrous litany of lies and fabrications against APC & its candidate. The PDP is a drowning party feverishly clawing at any straw of lies and lashing out in all delusional directions to keep afloat – but sink it will.
“We believe Nigerians are not taken in by the jejune antics. The PDP now runs the most unethical, pernicious and inelegant, abusive, obtrusive and nationally divisive campaign in the history of electioneering in Nigeria.
“The other day it was the PDP candidate Atiku who, out of frustration, stated publicly that the north must not vote anybody outside the region. It’s the same trend that characterizes the PDP campaign ever since.
“That surely is a sign of defeat, and readiness to sacrifice the unity of this country on the altar of unbridled inordinate ambition.
“Nigerians are wiser and would never allow PDP centrifugal forces to take our nation down with it. All men and women of good conscience should rise up and use their votes to send PDP and its band of desperados to the dustbin of history where they rightfully belong.
“Contrary to PDP fabrication, President Buhari was warmly received in Kano State today by the good people and government of the state where he commissioned eight hugely impactful projects including overhead bridge with underpass and a cancer centre.
“On Sunday, we alerted the nation to the plot by PDP to orchestrate and execute many evil plans to defame, ridicule and delegitimise President Muhammadu Buhari and our presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
“Nigerians of goodwill would have seen by now that we didn’t raise false alarm in our statement issued on 29 January 2023 where we detailed the evil machinations of PDP and their hirelings.
“Only the evil mind of PDP could conceive an attack on a President of Nigeria.
“It is not impossible that PDP through its paid agents would organise miscreants to stage-manage an attack. But we are sure the security agencies are capable of foiling any planned attack on the President and anyone who is caught in such unholy plot now or in the future will have himself or herself to blame.
“We call on the security agencies especially the Police and Department of State Services to immediately arrest PDP National Publicity Secretary for interrogation over this imaginary attack.”